Author: Editor

Econet Solar, a subsidiary of African mobile phone operator Econet Wireless, has launched a prepaid solar-powered home power station that it believes could have a meaningful impact on people’s lives on a continent where an estimated 70% of people not have access to a

Global media site and search engine Yahoo launched an SA-specific portal on Tuesday. The site aggregates SA news from the likes of the Daily Maverick, AFP, Association Press and Reuters, and will offer users mailboxes on a .co.za domain. The question is why it’s

SA’s four largest telecommunications companies together spent nearly R1bn on advertising in the first eight months of 2011, with Vodacom leading the pack with spend in the period of R348,8m. The findings, which are contained in the annual AdFocus magazine

Former Vodacom Group CEO Alan Knott-Craig has “not entered into any contracts with any company” but is still keen to reenter the SA’s telecommunications industry after 1 April when his restraint of trade with his former employer expires. Speaking to TechCentral on

Absa on Tuesday said it is trialling near-field communications (NFC) payments with 500 of its employees. The trial will be fully underway by the end of January, and the bank intends rolling out the service to consumers shortly thereafter. Some of the initial partners for the programme

Absa has launched what it’s calling SA’s first “live user trial” of near-field communication (NFC) technology on mobile phones. The trial will kick off in mid-December and involve 500 of the bank’s own staff members, operating in a live commercial environment. The system will use NFC capabilities

Stafford Masie, just 37, has had a highly eventful career, having been the first SA country manager for Google and working for multinational corporations like Novell. He’s now dabbling in numerous start-ups and technology businesses. TechCentral’s Craig Wilson

Cell C marketing director Simon Camerer, the man behind the recent corporate rebranding at Cell C and the advertising campaigns that got rival Vodacom seeing red, is leaving the cellular operator at the end of the year after more than seven years in the position. He says he plans to take a break

With a jam-packed studio, heated discussions are par for the course on this week’s show. Join Andy Hadfield, Brett Haggard, Simon Dingle and Stafford Masie for a discussion on Siri and the future of interfaces, mobile ecosystems, the iPhone 4S, naked ADSL, and much more

The Xperia Arc looks likely to be one of the last devices to carry the Sony Ericsson name after Sony said in October that it has bought Ericsson’s share of the joint venture. Sony no doubt wants to ensure future handsets integrate more easily with its other devices, and hopefully the